“The entire conflict between religious liberty and cultural liberalism has created an interesting situation in our politics: The political left is expending a remarkable amount of energy trying to fine, vilify and bring to heel organizations — charities, hospitals, schools and mission-infused businesses — whose commitments they might under other circumstances extol.”

“The courts aren’t going to be passing judgment on the wisdom of different religious teachings. And access to blood transfusions will be affected by this decision even less than access to contraception will be.”

I listened to this EconTalk podcast recently on my daily morning walk. Other than being awesome because 1) the interviewee is a 2013 economics Nobel Laureate, and 2) the topics discussed (risk, ambiguity, and measurement) are important throughout the life, physical, and social sciences, I also enjoyed learning about the following quote (attributed to the 19th century physicist Lord Kelvin): “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it.”

“That phrase or variants of it will appear in a lot of coverage today. It’s misleading for two reasons. Hobby Lobby doesn’t object to providing contraception; it objects to contraceptives that may act as abortifacients.”